Exercising is for the Weird
by The Forgotten Traveller
Summary: For the record, there was almost nothing Antonio hated more than exercising. That obviously explained why he was laying pitifully on the floor, his entire body aching, right?...Right.
I am the king of unnecessary line breaks. Just so you know.

* * *

Antonio was beginning to regret this whole exercising routine thing he had started around a week ago.

He hadn't done much physically over winter break (unless eating counted, which he was pretty sure didn't), and though he was feeling the repercussions now, this was definitely not the way to go about it.

Of course, Antonio had asked around before he committed to a schedule he made up and - oh, would you look at that? His friend Gilbert told him about _his_ exercise workout he did everyday. It sounded great to Antonio, so he thought why not give it a try?

Dear god, was that a mistake. He should have remembered beforehand there was probably no one on the face of this planet that could match the exercising rate of Gilbert Beilschmidt. Not even his brother, Ludwig, was that fit, and that was genuinely saying something. But Gilbert had looked so happy when Antonio asked him, and Antonio didn't have the heart to even faintly recall Gilbert's intense attitude about keeping healthy.

So there he was, a dauntingly large list of physical activities to do on a daily basis in his hand, and a determined smile on his face.

It worked, surprisingly, for the first day. Sure, every part of Antonio's body burned with the fury of a hundred suns, but wasn't that how it was supposed to work? He would feel drained, but the next morning, it would be better?

Apparently his body thought otherwise. Even before Antonio opened his eyes on day two, all he felt was pain from everywhere. It sucked, and he complained out loud to his cat. His cat had no sympathy for him, the cute, furry bastard.

Just complaining to his fluffy cat, named Mini Wheats on a drunken night, wasn't enough for Antonio to have satisfied his annoying quota for the day, so he somehow managed to reach over to his nightstand and pick up the phone.

He dialed the first number his muscles remembered, which just so happened to be his old home phone number from, well, back home. He quickly ended the call and tried the next one. Not that he didn't want to talk to his mom, or whoever was home (he didn't, really), but he just wasn't in the mood to start a friendly conversation then get yelled at for something he probably didn't do in the first place. The next number was far better, since it was answered on the first...second...third ring by the wonderful love of his life.

" _Loooviiii!_ " Antonio whined out before his boyfriend could even say a word, dragging out his name and purposely cracking it at the end. He pouted as well, just because he could.

Silence for a few seconds. Then, a noise on the other end that was either static or an amused snort.

"Good _god_ , what's wrong with you?" Came the half-concerned, half-definitely amused voice of one Lovino Vargas.

Despite his current condition, Antonio couldn't help but smile at the sound of Lovino's voice. He really couldn't, it was just one of those things.

He could almost imagine where Lovino was. Considering the fact that it was around 10:30 in the morning, on a weekend, in January, the call had actually woken Lovino up. How cute! Lovino was especially adorable when he just woke up, unless it was to an alarm, or someone waking him up, which was what happened a good chunk of the time. Whenever that wasn't, Lovino would wake up like a dream. Too sweet...

"You still there?" Lovino called out, voice a little hoarse, snapping Antonio out of his reverie. He blinked rapidly to clear his thoughts, unaware he had even spaced out.

"Yes, sorry! I just got sidetracked." Antonio apologized with another smile, closing his eyes.

"I'm sure you did. What did you want, though? You woke me up, you dork." Lovino said fondly. So he was asleep! Cute, cute, cute!

"Oh! Oh, I just wanted to complain to you." answered Antonio simply as he shrugged, knowing no one would see it.

"...About what?"

"Well, you know that exercise thing I got from Gil'?" Antonio asked, on his back and looking up at the ceiling. It was off-white, and really kinda terrible now that he was really studying it.

"That dumb thing? Yeah, I guess. Why?"

Maybe he'd call Lovino over someday and they could paint it. Lovi always liked those kinds of things...maybe they could try to splatter paint it, make it look like the starry night sky.

"'Tonio? Still there?...Again?"

There was glow-in-the-dark paint, right? Get some of that, some dark blue, maybe black, try to get some cool galaxy designs in there...

"Antonio!"

Antonio started again at Lovino's voice from over the phone. "Hm-? What? Sorry, sorry." he smiled sheepishly to the ceiling. "Just looking at the ceiling."

"...In your living room?" guessed Lovino.

"Mm, no. Bedroom."

"Oh, that ugly thing? Yikes."

Antonio grinned. "I was just thinking about painting it! Wanna come and help me?"

He could almost feel Lovino smile as he hummed out, "Depends. What color?"

"That's the thing. How do you feel about staring up at space at night?"

Lovino paused for a moment, probably thinking of the prospect. "Sounds nice enough...wait, it's your bedroom! Why would I be there?"

Antonio couldn't help himself. He laughed.

"Hey, don't laugh at me!" Lovino was pretending to be angry again, and Antonio could feel him blush. "Hear me, you - you dummy?!"

"I hear you, Lovi. I guess, wanna come over sometime?"

"What a dumb way to ask...and hey! Don't get off topic! We were talking about something."

Antonio had forgotten, too preoccupied with the prospect of an activity with Lovino. Again. Whoops.

"I was? Oh, oh, right. Complaining. That exercise thing, yes?"

"Mhmm."

"Yeah! Okay, so this was a terrible idea from the start. Like, why did you even let me do this in the beginning?"

Lovino scoffed. "Oh, don't you say I didn't try to stop you. I _so_ did."

Antonio rolled his eyes, grinning. "I know, I know. I should have listened to you, huh? Anyway, it's just so _tiring_. I hate it! It totally sucks. D'you know how many push-ups I have to do?"

"Why would I?"

"Ah, I don't know. But that's the worst part! My arms hurt so bad, Lovi. And my legs, my chest..."

"Sounds rough, babe. Think your arms are gonna make it?"

"No! I don't think so." Antonio pouted.

"Hmph. I suppose you won't be able to sweep me off my feet and kiss me breathless like you do every Saturday, huh?"

Antonio gasped. He hadn't thought of that! "I hadn't thought of that! Oh no, Lovi, what are you going to do without that?!"

Lovino was quiet for a second, probably thinking again. "I'll be over in ten." he stated, then hung up, leaving Antonio to wonder why.

* * *

Surely enough, exactly ten minutes later, Antonio heard his front door open, and the soft voice of Lovino call out his name.

"I'm in here!" Antonio answered clearly.

Footsteps sounded faintly down the hall to in front of the door to Antonio's bedroom. Lovino knocked politely, even though he had been over to Antonio's house more times than either of them could count.

"Come in, darling." Antonio smiled as the door then opened a degree, enough for Lovino to stick his head through, a hand covering his eyes.

"Are you decent?" he asked, and Antonio could see the little blush on his face.

Antonio laughed not unkindly. "You're so precious. I am."

Lovino removed his hand, revealing the hazel eyes Antonio absolutely loved. He was smiling very faintly.

"Hi." Lovino mumbled, pushing the door the rest of the way open and stepping in. He looked around for a moment, taking in Antonio's room, before his gaze came to rest on the poor, helpless body of Antonio.

"Hi." replied Antonio, weakly raising an arm to offer Lovino a wave. "How are you?"

"Fine, fine." Lovino waved back and shifted his weight from foot to foot. "...You?"

Antonio grinned. "Wonderful, thank you. Now, not that I'm complaining, but...why exactly are you here?"

Lovino smirked then, the action causing one of Antonio's eyebrows to raise.

"I'm here to inspire you."

* * *

"...Inspire me?" Antonio blinked a minute later, confused.

"Mhmm." Lovino nodded, taking another few steps towards Antonio, almost determinedly.

Antonio blinked again, and once more. "How...how are you going to do that?" he asked curiously.

"You'll see." smiled Lovino secretively. "Now, are you going to get back to your push-ups?"

"I...okay...?" Antonio frowned, unsure of what Lovino had in mind. He got back into the push-up position, his arms burning just from staying like that. Eyes closed, he started the exercise again.

One push-up. Two push-ups. Three push-ups. Four pu-?

Antonio froze as his eyes flew open. Out of everything he thought he would see when he looked straight ahead, the smirking face of Lovino wasn't even on the waiting list for the list.

Of course, who else would have kissed him?

"L-Lovi?" he stammered, shocked. "What are...what are you doing?"

"Motivating you, silly." Lovino's smirk softened into a smile. "Is it working?"

"Kissing you? I don't - I don't follow how that would make me want to exercise." Antonio pointed out.

Lovino nodded. "That's alright. You see, every few push-ups you do, I'll give you a kiss."

Antonio blinked again. Actually, that was...that was a pretty good idea. He said so, causing Lovino to hum proudly.

"So I just...keep going?" Antonio asked, to clarify.

"Mhmm."

Antonio smiled slightly. "Okay."

* * *

Lovino was true to his word, and was random when administering his kisses. Antonio enjoyed them nonetheless, and they made the pain in his arms dull away.

Forty five push-ups later, and twice as many kisses, Antonio went down for another one and didn't come back up. Neither Lovino nor Antonio minded much.

That is, until Antonio's arms gave out from the exertion and he fell on top of Lovino. Lovino did not like that, and once Antonio released him, he retreated to Antonio's bed with a red-faced pout, crawled under the covers, and was eventually coerced out with many more kisses, apologies, and a promise for Antonio to help with dinner that night.

* * *

The prompt I saw was: _I_ _magine your Smol and Tol otp where Tol is doing push-ups and Smol is lying under them so they are more motivated to stay up on their arms and keep going and sometimes when they push down they get a peck on the lips (and then Tol gets tired and collapses heavily on top of Smol, smushing them while they flail)_

Cute, right?


End file.
